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Guest Post: Mass Delusion - American Style
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Submitted by Jim Quinn of The Burning Platform
Mass Delusion - American Style
“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that
they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and
one by one.” – Charles Mackay - Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
The American public thinks they are rugged individualists, who come
to conclusions based upon sound reason and a rational thought process.
The truth is that the vast majority of Americans act like a herd of
cattle or a horde of lemmings. Throughout history there have been many
instances of mass delusion. They include the South Sea Company bubble,
Mississippi Company bubble, Dutch Tulip bubble, and Salem witch trials.
It appears that mass delusion has replaced baseball as the
national past-time in America. In the space of the last 15 years the
American public have fallen for the three whopper delusions:
- Buy stocks for the long run
- Homes are always a great investment
- Globalization will benefit all Americans
Bill Bonner and Lila Rajiva ponder why people have always acted in a herd like manner in their outstanding book Mobs, Messiahs and Markets:
“Of course, we doubt if many public
prescriptions are really intended to solve problems. People certainly
believe they are when they propose them. But, like so much of what goes
on in a public spectacle, its favorite slogans, too, are delusional –
more in the nature of placebos than propositions. People repeat them
like Hail Marys because it makes them feel better. Most of our beliefs
about the economy – and everything else – are of this nature. They are
forms of self medication, superstitious lip service we pay to the powers
of the dark, like touching wood….or throwing salt over your shoulder.
“Stocks for the long run,” “Globalization is good.” We repeat slogans to
ourselves, because everyone else does. It is not so much bad luck we
want to avoid as being on our own. Why it is that losing your life
savings should be less painful if you have lost it in the company of one
million other losers, we don’t know. But mankind is first of all a herd
animal and fears nothing more than not being part of the herd.”
Stocks for the Long Run
The book Stocks for the Long Run was
written by Jeremy Siegel in the mid-1990′s. The premise is that if you
just buy and hold stocks over a 20 to 30 year period, you will always
make money. This was exactly what the Wall Street witch doctors ordered.
They pounded this message into the brains of every American incessantly
in their advertising campaigns, literature and propaganda. It became an
unquestioned truth. Just one problem. It isn’t the truth. Valuations
matter. The Dow Jones was at the same level in 1982 as it was in 1966.
On an inflation adjusted basis, the Dow did not get back to the 1966
level until 1990. That is 24 years of no return in the stock market. The
American public ignored the true facts and piled into equities during
the late 1990s. The result was one of the greatest examples of mass
delusion in history. The internet bubble drove the NASDAQ market to a
peak of 5,048 in March 2000. Today it sits at 2,180. Ten years after the
bubble burst, the NASDAQ is still down 57% from its peak.
Delusional Americans all over the country believed in the new
internet paradigm. Fools thought “bricks and mortar” retailers were
dead. Morons quit their jobs so they could get rich day trading. Wall
Street hucksters took advantage of this hysteria by attaching .COM to
every ridiculous IPO they shilled to the American public. Wall Street
knew these companies were pieces of crap, but they churned out the IPOs
as quickly as possible while the getting was good. The Wall Street
oligarchs made billions and the delusional American public got screwed.
You would think that average Americans would have learned their lesson
after this experience. They did not. They continued to buy into the Wall
Street lies about stocks being a sure path to riches. The fact is that
the S&P 500 is currently at the same level it was in March 1998. On
an inflation adjusted basis, it is 25% below the level of 1998. You
don’t hear this information on CNBC because the oligarchs that control
the media need the delusion to continue in order to harvest more riches
from the ignorant masses.
Home Sweet Home
“The continuing shortages of housing inventory are driving the price gains. There is no evidence of bubbles popping.” – David Lereah – Chief Economist for National Association of Realtors – 2005
“We’ve never had a decline in house prices on a nationwide basis.
So, what I think what is more likely is that house prices will slow,
maybe stabilize, might slow consumption spending a bit. I don’t think
it’s gonna drive the economy too far from its full employment path,
though.” – Ben Bernanke – 2005
“House prices have risen by nearly 25 percent over the past two
years. Although speculative activity has increased in some areas, at a
national level these price increases largely reflect strong economic
fundamentals.” - Ben Bernanke – 2005
Why was it that two supposedly brilliant, highly trained economists,
with countless degrees and high paying positions could be so very wrong?
Were they just mistaken or were they purposefully encouraging a
national delusion? With the bursting of the internet bubble in 2000 –
2002, Americans immediately proceeded to the next bubble. Alan Greenspan
was an almost God like figure in the early 2000s. He had “saved” the
economy countless times during his 15 year reign of terror at
the Federal Reserve. When he spoke, the American people listened. After
the internet bubble and 9/11, he proceeded to reduce interest rates to
1% for an extended period of time. He then gave the all clear sign to
Americans to take out adjustable rate mortgages. Lastly, Mr. Free
Markets decided that banks and mortgage brokers could police themselves.
The result was the greatest housing bubble in US history and a near
collapse of the worldwide financial system.
Sane economists like Robert Shiller saw it for what it was. He calmly
pointed out that home prices had pretty much tracked inflation for over
100 years. A 100% increase in home prices over the course of 3 years
was irrationally exuberant. He was scorned and ridiculed by the delusion
propagators at the NAR, the cheerleaders on CNBC, the Wall Street money
changers, the Federal Reserve stuffed suits, and the corrupt
politicians in Washington DC. The usual drivel about positive
demographics, low interest rates, strong income growth, and limited land
to develop were spewed out by the corporate media complex. The
beneficiaries of this mass delusion were the Wall Street banks that
created mortgage products and derivatives faster than Obama spreads our
wealth around.
Mass delusion is always encouraged by those who benefit most from the
mass delusion. David Lereah has admitted that he lied about the housing
bubble because he was employed by realtors. Realtors made millions in
commissions. Appraisers made millions in fees by inflating appraisals.
Mortgage brokers made millions by encouraging people to lie on mortgage
applications. Wall Street whores made billions by creating toxic
packages of mortgages and selling them to Irish nuns, old ladies
and clueless municipal administrators. The ratings agencies made
hundreds of millions in fees for slapping AAA ratings on toxic
derivatives. Politicians got rich from political “contributions”
from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Wall Street, and the NAR. Any reasonable
human being could look at the chart above and see that this would end
badly, but Americans wanted to be deluded. They choose to believe. The
housing market has now been falling for five years, with another five
years to go. Ben Bernanke has reduced interest rates to zero. I wonder
how that will work out.
Who Benefited from Globalization?
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” – Mark Twain
From the time that Bill Clinton signed the NAFTA agreement in 1994,
globalization has been touted by those in power as beneficial to all
Americans. How could free markets and free trade be a bad thing?
Corporate America, Wall Street, and the mainstream corporate media have
blared the propaganda of globalization benefits from their loudspeakers.
In theory, globalization appears to be a positive concept. It describes
a process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have
become integrated through a global network of communication,
transportation, and trade. The truth is that globalization is not
inherently good or inherently bad. The idea is that each country has its
own strengths and weaknesses. Each country will take advantage of their
strengths and rely on other countries to help mitigate their
weaknesses. This will result in increased trade, a larger world market,
and economic progress for all. One small problem. Trade is not really
free. Every country on earth protects various industries. Every country
on earth manipulates their currency in order to get an edge. Every
country on earth invokes tariffs to protect their national interests.
Bill Bonner and Lila Rajiva address the difficulties of globalization and “free trade” in Mobs, Messiahs and Markets:
“Unfair trade is yet another of the
dodgy slogans festooning the spectacle of globalization like tinsel
slithering around a pole dancer. How can different regulations and
practices in different countries constitute unfairness? Isn’t the
essence of trade that different countries have different things to offer
– whether cheap labor, or better technology, or more bountiful natural
resources, or more welcoming business environments? If all countries had
exactly the same things to offer each other, there would be no reason
to trade at all. But what “fair” trade advocates are really advocating,
of course, is unfair trade! They want to make sure their foreign
competitors divest themselves of the very advantages that they bring to
trading.”
“We notice, for instance, that when
Americans in Detroit lose jobs to other Americans in California, they
might grumble a bit. But, by and large, they accept it as part of the
nature of things. They move, or retrain, or change jobs. But when they
lose their jobs to Japanese in Osaka or Indians in Bangalore, then a cry
goes up. Unfair trade, howl the trade unions; race to the bottom, scold
the social activists; yellow – or brown – peril, shriek the xenophobes
and racists.”
It seems the American middle class was sold a false bill of goods.
They bought the Big Lie that globalization would benefit them. They
bought into the delusion that even though their high paying
manufacturing jobs sailed away to China and India, they could maintain
their lifestyle through brain work, easy credit, cheap goods made in
China by the people who took their jobs, and the ever increasing value
of their homes. Noam Chomsky notes the fallacy of this delusion:
“The dominant propaganda systems have
appropriated the term “globalization” to refer to the specific version
of international economic integration that they favor, which privileges
the rights of investors and lenders, those of people being incidental.”
Again, one must seek out who benefits from the delusion of
globalization. The crony capitalists, Wall Street oligarchs, and
corporate fascists who control the puppet strings in this country have
benefited greatly from the Big Lie. Over 5 million manufacturing jobs
have been off-shored since 2000. These good paying jobs are never coming
back. Millions of service sector jobs continue to be shipped overseas.
The global conglomerates like GE, HP, Oracle, IBM, and Boeing continue
to rake in billions of profits, distributing millions to its high paid
executives, while gutting middle class America. The ruling oligarchs
convinced Americans to take advantage of cheap goods and easy credit, to
buy electronics, cars, appliances, new kitchens, and take the vacations
of their dreams. This Big Lie has left the American consumer with $2.5
trillion of non-mortgage debt and the lowest level of home equity in
history. Retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, and Best
Buy reaped billions in profits as Americans whipped out one of their 10
credit cards to buy HDTV’s, economy bags of tube socks, iPads, iPods,
stainless steel refrigerators, and Dell computers. Small town America’s
mom and pop economy was gutted by Big Box retailers selling the
globalization delusion. The biggest beneficiaries of the globalization
delusion were the Wall Street banks. They control 80% of credit card
market and have reaped billions in interest at rates exceeding 20%,
while sucking $20 billion per year in late fees from the clueless
public. Wall Street bankers have rewarded themselves for their
brilliance in destroying the middle class by reaping multi-million
dollar bonus packages.
Vincible Ignorance
“Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don’t know because we don’t want to know.” - Aldous Huxley
Based on all available evidence, it seems the American public wants
to be misled. They have chosen ignorance over knowledge and
understanding. They want to believe their corrupt leaders. They want to
believe that things always work out in the long run. They want to
believe that the economy is about to get better. They don’t want to
think about unsustainable debt, unfunded liabilities, saving for
retirement, or Simon Cowell leaving American Idol. Americans desperately
want to be deluded into another bubble, but there are no evident
bubbles left to blow. The existing American delusion is that the
current fiscal path will not lead to the utter destruction of our once
great Republic.
America resembles a 40 year old aging baseball icon with two bad
knees, a pot belly, receding hairline and delusions that he is still the
ball player he was at 24. He doesn’t realize that his skills are shot,
as he flails at curveballs in the dirt thrown by 21 year old kids. The
rest of the league knows he is washed up, but he refuses to accept
reality. America isn’t even running on fumes at this point. It is
running on delusions. Politicians think they have saved the country from
a Depression by adding $3 trillion to the National Debt and allowing
Wall Street banks to pretend they are solvent. Americans have been
deluded by the ruling oligarchs that a $700 billion bank bailout, an
$800 billion pork filled stimulus plan, the Federal Reserve buying $1.2
trillion of toxic mortgages, and the Treasury forcing taxpayers to pick
up a $400 billion tab for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s bad loans has
actually solved a problem created by too much debt.
The American herd has gone mad. A few people have regained their
senses, but the vast majority still exhibits the behavior of sheep being
led to slaughter. The ruling oligarchs have utter contempt for the
average American, but they fear the masses. In order to retain their
power and wealth, they gladly hand out two years of unemployment
payments, food stamps, and welfare payments to keep the masses sedated.
The working middle class foots the bill. Corruption abounds and is
sustained by the passage of more laws and regulations. The sociopathic
powers that control the levers of power in this country need to be
brought to justice if this country has any chance at survival. The den
of vipers and thieves have trampled on the Constitution, speculated with
the country’s funds, risked blowing up the financial system, committed
fraud on a massive scale, and continue to rape and pillage the American
citizens. Vincible ignorance by the American people is no longer
a legitimate excuse. The criminals on Wall Street and Washington DC must
be routed out and Americans must awaken from their delusional state
before it is too late. I weep for the liberty of my country.
And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it’s sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you’re older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death
Pink Floyd – Time
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'we can't make it here any more'
http://israelfinancialexpert.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke8l_EOOGcg&feature=related 7:01
What a load. To whit:
1. 2 of the 4 bubbles he uses to show that Americans are delusion were not American bubbles. The problem of lemming-like behavior is a flaw of human nature, not anything peculiar to Americans.
2. The author's own home price chart shows that we are still in a confirmed long-term uptrend as far as home prices go. I am simply reading the chart, not commenting on my feelings or any other such nonsense.
I'm sorry, but I read Mobs, Messiahs and Markets when it first came out and I read McKay yars ago. BOth are great reads. This article is simply populist tripe (at least populist here) fed to people who are always anxious to believe that we are smarter than the masses. In that belief, he exhibit the same lemming like behavior that McKay, Kindleberger, Rajiva and Bonner warn us of.
The author's own home price chart shows that we are still in a confirmed long-term uptrend as far as home prices go.
A lower RTH low and lower high are not an uptrend...
What a load. To whit:
1. 2 of the 4 bubbles he uses to support his contention that Americans are delusion were not American bubbles. The problem of lemming-like behavior is a flaw of human nature, not anything peculiar to Americans.
2. The author's own home price chart shows that we are still in a confirmed long-term uptrend as far as home prices go. I am simply reading the chart, not commenting on my feelings or any other such nonsense.
I'm sorry, but I read Mobs, Messiahs and Markets when it first came out and I read McKay yars ago. BOth are great reads. This article is simply populist tripe (at least populist here) fed to people who are always anxious to believe that we are smarter than the masses. In that belief, he exhibit the same lemming like behavior that McKay, Kindleberger, Rajiva and Bonner warn us of.
two shots, a missfire, and two more shots..
turn your weapon to single fire
What a load. To whit:
1. 2 of the 4 bubbles he uses to support his contention that Americans are delusion were not American bubbles. The problem of lemming-like behavior is a flaw of human nature, not anything peculiar to Americans.
2. The author's own home price chart shows that we are still in a confirmed long-term uptrend as far as home prices go. I am simply reading the chart, not commenting on my feelings or any other such nonsense.
I'm sorry, but I read Mobs, Messiahs and Markets when it first came out and I read McKay yars ago. BOth are great reads. This article is simply populist tripe (at least populist here) fed to people who are always anxious to believe that we are smarter than the masses. In that belief, we exhibit the same lemming like behavior that McKay, Kindleberger, Rajiva and Bonner warn us of.
What a load. To whit:
1. 2 of the 4 bubbles he uses to show that Americans are delusion were not American bubbles. The problem of lemming-like behavior is a flaw of human nature, not anything peculiar to Americans.
2. The author's own home price chart shows that we are still in a confirmed long-term uptrend as far as home prices go. I am simply reading the chart, not commenting on my feelings or any other such nonsense.
I'm sorry, but I read Mobs, Messiahs and Markets when it first came out and I read McKay yars ago. BOth are great reads. This article is simply populist tripe (at least populist here) fed to people who are always anxious to believe that we are smarter than the masses. In that belief, he exhibit the same lemming like behavior that McKay, Kindleberger, Rajiva and Bonner warn us of.
One peculiar thing to US citizens: everytime they fall upon one of their specific behaviours, they find back the value of universality by making the said behaviour part of human nature.
Great.
They are obviously not American SPECIFIC if other countries/cultures have done them (or are doing them currently). Way to fail at reading comprehension.
I dont think so.
Nothing calls for an exclusive property in my wording.
The fact that a behaviour is specific to the US does not exclude that the US are the only specimen displaying the behaviour.
Other people can be as well displayed the same characteristic.
Quick example: take crows. Flying is specific to crows. Does not mean that other birds like nightingales do not fly.
What it is excludes though is that every other displays the behaviour. If it was the case, distinction would not be possible.
Yet it is a US trait to treat what is specific to them as a universal trait. A bit like telling because crows fly, every other bird can fly.
you sound like a semantic bullshit artist - go look up the definition of "Specific"
My thinking on globalization is that it is completely inevitable. In the era of increasing profitability and higher sales targets one reaches a saturation point for local markets where you can sell only a certain number of widgets at x price. if you need to move beyond that you need to find markets outside your shores. For instance, INTC derives 60% of its sales from outside America. What would you prefer that they sell only locally? If you would like to sell globally why should they buy our stuff if you cannot offshore some of the work to them? Gone are the days when America could just import talent from around the world and just export goods while they consumed.
If you look at the number of science grads being produced Chindia outstrips the US. What do you think? they are going to sit around waiting for visas to enter the US and work here? some might but the vast majority of them will start their businesses and sell in their markets. So should we compete for markets that are bigger than what we have here or should we erect barriers and play locally?
The thing is if you want to have corporations the size that exist on SP 500 and sell globally offshoring of goods, services, labour and manufacturing is essential. If not, we risk being decimated by the competition. Talent is global folks, it is not always found within.
Well, there is "globalization" as a concept built on the worldwide spread of knowledge and know-how, and there is the current trade regime we call "globalization"... they are not one in the same. Trade between nations is generally a good thing; it takes a special kind of ideological arrogance and blind self interest to take an activity as normally beneficial as trade and turn it into the toxin we see today.
Exactly. Who in America are they going to sell this offshored junk to if nobody in America has a job? If these companies don't need the American worker or the American market, how about they just get the hell out and relocate (including executives' mansions) to China. Oh, wait, they want the infrastructure the American worker built and the handouts the American taxpayer provides. With such a monsterous entitlement complex of their own, the constant crying about everyone else's is positively absurd.
How can Armageddon possibly be a black swan event when so many see it coming. I'm giving Israel another few weeks to get it on with Iran, then Syria, then Egypt, then Russia, then ....( signal lost).
click. Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
In deflation, Gold will be the tallest pygmy. If it drops 40% in a deflationary depression, it will still stand tall among the financial wreckage that is defaulted debt and bankrupt equities.
But, if the Fed succeeds in combating this event (preemptively or after the fact), Hyperinflation is a high risk and we know how that portends for fiat currency.
Also, during the U.S. Great Depression, there was a high demand for Dollars as the last refuge for safety. Dollars were backed by Gold then, Not GDP.
If depression economics kicks in again, you will see a flight to assets with no counterparty risk... this time the Dollar doesn't fit the bill as much. Gold will compete with it, just like it did when the Europeans ran for cover during the Greek debacle.
Finally, if you are long dollars looking at Deflation coming before inflation, you are most likely right. But Hyperinflation is a function of money velocity, not just money supply. And money velocity can turn on a dime or whim if the public loses faith in its government.
If that is the case, you must be a market timer extraoirdinaire to not get caught long fiat currency when a devaluation panic hits. You'll be right until you are wrong, with very little time to reverse.
M3 will revert to the mean, but only after a pendulum correction in the other direction.
- Vince L.
TPTB still have a pretty firm grip on things, what makes anyone think that control can be taken away from them? They won't go away quietly, and by all indications will do anything to maintain the status quo as long as possible.
What can we expect from the vague animousity of the "Tea Party" that continually argues with itself about what it's most angry about? Sarah Palin trotted out in 2012? Yeah, that will save us all for sure. The sheeple won't be waking up in any meaningful way until things really crumble.
The Tea Party is not an organization as such. Sarah Palin is not its leader, no matter what the media or Palin herself might want you to believe. The Tea Party comes in and out of existence as a spontaneous gathering of disgruntled Americans whose sole shared purpose is to shout the word, "No!"
That day is upon you...now!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eau3RoxGN8E
A remarkable irony of history is that the land Hannibal's army sat on outside the gates of Rome was sold in the city market at undiminished price.
Another is the dispatch of a large body of troops for overseas duty, out of the city gate opposite to the one Hannibal faced.
It is further recorded that the Roman senate lauded the general Cincinnatus, the 'cunctator', not for defeating Hannibal, but because he 'did not despair of the Roman republic'.
Gee, I wonder if the grown-up cry babies blubbering over their disasterous charts ever wondered what it would be like to be a part of something bigger than the Dow Jones Index?
Gee, I wonder if the grown-up cry babies blubbering over their disasterous charts ever wondered what it would be like to be a part of something bigger than the Dow Jones Index?
I am an individual. I trust in myself and do not request placement on some "winning team" to justify my life.
Those who call independent men "cry babies" have merely been frightened by the sight of themselves in the mirror.
Cincinnatus did not dereat Hannibal. They weren't even alive at the same time.
You are correct. Apologies. Should have said Quintus Fabius Maximus.
Thanks, Attilla the Wimp.
Great report, lots of truth to it given how the American public have been socially engineered to react this way.
More Capitalist America bashing and gate keeping.
Noam Chomski like Matt Taibi, chief leftist 9/11 gate keeper but enough to give the reactionaries something to cling to - what a fraud.
Am I the only one getting a little freaked by how much mainstream exposure zerohedge is getting
Almost makes me feel embarrassed for sitting here in my gutchies.
In the early 1980s American Supply-Siders decided that the right choice for a mature, post-industrial, post-capitalist economy was to take out a giant national credit card and try to pretend that the American economy could function like it did circa 1876.
They set up a short-term seductive system of what amounted to seller financing by China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Germany and others that permitted American consumers to buy on credit. The ultimate expression of that credit was in the form of dollars recycled into US Treasury debt, which are IOUs now held by foreign governments and banks.
Long term, the deal is problematic. The economy never really "rejuvenated" under the Supply-Side Regime. In fact, outsourcing and offshoring gutted the productive economy in favor of jobs in the domestic financial sector, aka bean counting. Not a sustainable economic model since the product can't be exported for long (foreigners figure out how to count their own beans) and an economy can't survive on just pushing paper back and forth to one another.
So one potential outcome to the Supply-Side era? Americans become debt slaves to foreign nations for years to come. Or America sells off assets and resources to foreign entities to pay down debt.
Excellent. Exactly the kind of unreal script outcomes Hollywood and US movie watchers are fond of.
The US will not honour their debts in terms of real value. The more the US debt is growing, the more it is becoming the troubles of everyone else but the US. We are speaking about the US, the nation with the highest treaties breaking in human history.
All true, AA. Herein lies the global political poker game unfolding before our eyes. Increasingly, the question will become : Is America bluffing? Is someone else flinching? Will the tall stack want to cash in some chips? How reckless will the betting get?
The minute a creditor flinches, it's over.
The emperor has no clothes, but don't expect the emperor to say that on CNBC.
When your biggest export is debt, you are truly in a world of hurt.
Maybe we should be asking, what did we have in 1876 that we don't have now?
How about honest money, constitutional government, local control, no handouts, and freedom, for a start?
The above may have been generally true except for The Big Crash of the 30s and now. I suspect that it was not the general population that was responsible for # 3 which may be the biggest recovery problem now. The small machine shop or the “dirty” manufactures in California did not want to see there business go away. EPA, employee requirements, automation, computers, and lower off shore costs sent our jobs to other countries. We have too much population to exist on service or government jobs. The housing boom was a short term solution for man power required jobs. It went bust and took the jobs with it. Higher education, as touted by some, does not create jobs for the mid level IQ American. There are few jobs for the larger percentile and there are none in creation.
#2 has generally been good compared to paying rent. The shuck and jive housing boom was a part of the job creation stated above. With a many year, shadow, over supply of houses and the book keeping of the banks that carry this inventory---- who knows. Indeed the American consumer got suckered by US Government and BIG business.
#1 Markets are fluid and that is one attraction. One can generally get money out. It is one way to fund business for growth. When the banks and citizens stuff the money under the mattress, contraction is certain. However, the sure lose of saved wages in markets that are way too complex to understand and fraught with questionable ethics and operations is a detractor.
#4 which is not mentioned in the article, is the failure of the Union wage and retirement systems of Government. California is in the news more often but is not exclusive to the melt down. Big greed is in the news as short falls in budget.
#5 also missing is the transformation of the shift of the rural population to urban. Rural was usually very conservative with money. There is the weather problem with boom and bust years, back to back. There is the surge and fall of not only crop production but demand by the buyers. Health uncertainty up until the last few years could be an end of game. But like in many small businesses, if you can not work, you may not eat. In city life, there is always a job, and if not the government will give you food and money. City life is the easy life where you can spend your money and not worry. Now the city jobs are going to another city in a country whose name does not ring a bell. And, the government folks are getting stingy with food stamps and unemployment.
So, the American population faces another hard time. The genetics of the adventurers that populated this country is not gone; it just needs to go back into survival mode.
We need to isolate the governments and individuals who made the large leadership mistakes. We need to remake the media so that they become accurate information outlets. We need to reshape the groups that dictate the values, such as Hollywood, to direct us back to where we should be.
It may not be an OBAMA--- “yes we can”. But, hell yes, we can, and we gotta do it.
#3 Reminds me of Thomas Friedmans new book, " The world is relatively flat with a slight decline"
#3...... destroyed #1
wrong nest...flying coop
Enough! Enough with this revisionist history blaming Americans for wanting their culture and their survival. They march by the millions, they yell, they carry signs, they blog, they attend town hall meetings, they form protest movements, they fight for their right to keep and bear arms, they man borders, they try to vote in referendums to protect their property and their culture (Arizona and California), they fight against the odds and the media to form third parties to thwart a rigged two-party voting system, they try to stay financially two steps ahead of the Fed only to be blocked and ambushed again and again and again…all the while tied down like Gulliver by a million Lilliputian regulatory strings.
When you’re lied to and victimized, is it right to classify as “delusional” the young boy asking Shoeless Joe Jackson emerging from the courthouse under the Black Socks Baseball Scandal who asked,” Say it ain’t so, Joe”? The boy had faith in the system and his hero the same as Americans had faith in a system created by the Founders. They trusted their futures to their elected representatives and hands-clean Adam Smith free-enterprise markets.
To call them a “herd” and deluded is a crime. They were lied to, cheated, and victimized; all their dreams were stolen by the duplicitous central bankers installed on the throne in 1913 and their henchmen: Katherine Meyer, Walter Cronkite, Lyndon Johnson, Madison Avenue, and all the rest.
The bankers paid politicians to turn their heads while they took control of the currency in 1913, and hence, gave them the power and resources to own the media, and to buy and sell out America and the American Dream. The Obamas and the Bushes are so in the tank that they hardly know what to say or do in pleasing their masters.
I am literally sick to death of people who call Americans delusional or greedy or bigots because they want to survive, provide for their families, and retain their culture and their heritage. The deliberate crime against America was socialism, i.e., turning the masses into a voting weapon in support of the tyranny. The tyrants, armed with fiat currency, deliberately turned the Republic into a democracy so that they could use the masses for their support—allowing the non-propertied man and non-citizen to vote himself property and special privilege at the expense of the middle class.
Patriotic Americans have been voicing their concern and intensified anger for decades and every attempt to take back their country has been met with force (opposition to the militia movement), court decisions overturning popular referendums such as term limits for Congress and control of immigration and borders, loss of states’ rights (direct election of senators), federal control and manipulation of voting regulations, deliberate destruction of the grassroots two-party system, hamstringing of third party movements, gerrymandering to protect purchased incumbents, expansive support for lobbyists working against the people…
Every attempt by the people to peaceably rise up against this tyranny has been blocked by the banker-controlled judges, by an executive branch completely under the control of Wall Street elites, and by a congress responsive to lobbyists rather than citizens….
Is it any wonder that when the Federal Reserve Banks were opened for business on November 16, 1914, the mastermind of the System, Paul Warburg said, “This date may be considered as the Fourth of July in the economic history of the United States”?
Could not agree more. Great comment.
Great post...
But you can replace the word ' FED' with non-american internationalist. Our problems stem from outside our borders, and home grown globalist.
Clarification well taken. “Don’t fight the Fed…” “Why fight JP Morgan Chase…" means “Don’t fight the Rothschilds....”
Nathan Mayer Rothschild 1777-1836 deserves his place in our history books. It was he who once said, now repeated ad nauseum and rightfully so: "I care not what puppet is placed upon the throne of England to rule the Empire on which the sun never sets. The man who controls Britain's money supply controls the British Empire, and I control the British money supply."
The “mysterious” men who met on Jekyll Island may have used code names and first names only but make no mistake, one name that was there in power if not in person was Rothschild.
JR
A strange species we are. We can stand anything God and Nature can throw at us save only plenty. If I wanted to destroy a nation, I would give it too much and I would have it on it's knees, greedy, miserable, sick.
John Steinbeck
Let's see, America's blessed with great natural wealth, 2 great oceans to protect it from 2 world wars, the world's reserve currency, the world's talent pool all want to come over.
Looks like there is enough ropes there to be hang with.
Sorry. The lemmings voted over and over again by huge margins for the prophets of "Greed is Good". Hypocritically, now they're acting like it's everyone else's fault.
Actually people voted over and over for the code of altruism -- the kind of altruism where everybody pitches into a common pot but each one thinks that somehow they will be the one to get the soup bone.
A little more greed and a little bit of forethought would have stopped the lies of the welfare/warfare state. It would have been a good thing.
Nicely put to the MAX++++++++++++
Let focus on the foundation of the fraud.
"installed on the throne in 1913 and their henchmen"
"Patriotic Americans". . . okay, stop right there.
with those two words you consign yourself to group-think, you surrender your personal sovereignty to a made-up version of reality, created BY the elite in order to further their agenda. . . nations are fictions, and those who create them also move the damn lines, change the damn names WHENEVER it suits their immoral aims - look at history if you doubt me - ANY point in history.
research this nation's story, and then research it again, and again - until you find some truths. . . enough with this flag-waving, that just marks you as someone who "believes" in the story. . . and seriously, that's ALL that's required of you.
http://mtwsfh.blogspot.com/2007/12/lie-number-two-american-revolution.html
start here if you like. or further "back" if this is too scarey. . . but START people, and start soon.
or not, your call.
Free trade and globalization are not the enemies. They should be embraced by any Austrian economist. The problem is fractional reserve banking, fiat currencies, lobbying, corporatism, a corrupt government, the imf, world bank, noam chomsky (just kidding but seriously he is a socialist), etc.
There's nothing wrong with either, per se, but we have neither.
Globalization caused by domestic inflation and regulation is not really free international trade.
You heavily tax and regulate all transactions within the US, and then act surprised when capital flees to where it is less constrained?
Of course, the common Washington prescription for "job protection" is to constrain domestic capital even further, which increases the impetus for capital flight.
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/08/debt-collector-will-n...
Debt Collector Will Not Pay More Than $500 for a Loan, Regardless of SizeThe result is one of the paradoxes of the recession: the more money you borrowed, the less likely you will have to pay up.
Utah Loan Servicing is a debt collector that buys home equity loans from lenders. Clark Terry, the chief executive, says he does not pay more than $500 for a loan, regardless of how big it is.
“Anything over $15,000 to $20,000 is not collectible,” Mr. Terry said. “Americans seem to believe that anything they can get away with is O.K.”
But wait, there is more.
If you are a lemming, squid or sheeple you may also believe in the following.
4. Independent central banks are good for the economy
5. Media concentration is good for the economy and the truth
6. The health of banks is more important than the health of the real economy
7. Change can come from above
8. Flipping houses is not ursury
9. Spending creates wealth
10. Inflation creates prosperity and deflation makes everyone worse off
11. Inflation and deflation are mutually exclusive
12. Debt-based money spreads wealth to those who work hard for others
13. Inflating the money supply is not an unusual event
14. The future can reliably be forecasted and margins of error can be measured
15. Incomes and wealth need not be distributed broadly, they will trickle down anyway
16. There are no systematic feedback loops, only cause and effect
17. By demonstrating force, one can touch people's heart
18. It does not matter how money is created, look the other way be happy
19. There is plenty of resources for everyone
20. Two or three degrees hotter is not a big deal, my SUV has extra aircon
21. Deep water drilling will solve the energy problem once and for all
22. There are a lot of substitutes for oil in industrial processes
23. Retirement account fees are not significant to the average retiree
24. Montly contributions are mathematically proven to be wise
25. The stock market is fair and transparent for ordinary investors
26. Debt bubbles tend to go away like asset bubbles, especially through refinancing
27. Austerity brings prosperity
28. Take more risks when you are young, uncalculated or not
29. Indebted governments are nice and loyal to their citizens
30. Housing price fluctuations is a historical norm
31. Monetary inflation has been around for hundreds of years
32. Interest groups have a natural counterbalance in the economic system
33. Derivatives can hedge systemic risks well
34. Growth always outpaces future liabilities
35. It does not matter how goods are produced or farmed as long as they are cheap
36. Education makes you special and is a guaranteed way to a great job
37. Technology will solve all problems and there are no hard choices
38. This time, the government will get it right
39. Obesity has nothing to do with healthcare costs
40. Nuclear energy is sustainable
41. Trust shall not be granted easily to neighbours
42. Government statistics are usually accurate
43. This time it is special, so civil liberties may have to be curtailed
44. Some crimes are especially bad and require a more just judicial process
45. Grandma is silly because she keeps talking about what one dollar could buy before
46. Even modern economies tend to get stuck and needs to be restarted regularly
47. The youth is lazy and their complaints and concerns are groundless
48. Black swans are an interesting concept, let's get back to work
49. The China government is more powerful than the market
50. Zero hedge is overrated
Apt compendium..
The author assumes there would have been no falloff in manufacturing employment without NAFTA. That correlation is not causation is something you learn in high school stat class. We knew back in the sixties that automation was going to wipe out whole swaths of employee positions.
In 1900 would it have been beneficial to "save the farmer"? Did the transition from an agrarian economy to an industrial economy come free and easy? Now that we're making the transition from an industrial economy to an information economy, there is great pain and consternation. That has nothing to do with some group of "ruling oligarchs" squeezing dollars out of the middle class. It's called history, something no one group of people can control.
For example, the housing graph indicates that BOTH building costs and interest rates declined from 1980 to today. How does that square with these nebulous masters of we lemmings, these "ruling oligarchs" creating a system to screw us all? Why would they drive costs down? Wouldn't they have tried to maximize their ROI if they were truly "ruling oligarchs"?
The rest of his "analyses" are recycled cliches that reinforce the simple, lemming-like thinking of a huge portion of the readership of this site, that there are shadowy groups of super-rich and super-powerful that actually control things. That's a good fairy tale to rationalize away your own failings or to entertain ourselves a la The X-Files, but the world's economic and political systems are so far beyond complex that no group can control them for more than the shortest periods of time. Ask the Hunt brothers. Ask the old Soviet Politburo. Ask the British Colonial Office.
Danger has always existed in the future and always will. America effectively conquered the world between 1940 and 1989. We did so by trying to do our best, not by trying to conquer the world. Some people hate us for that. Who gives a crap? They will never be satisfied, so ignore them.
Trying to do our best included electing the incompetent buffoon we have now. We'll survive him and the rest of our current dangers. We survived Jimmy Carter, Mr. Peanut-preacher-man of the cardigan clan and the malaise-woe-is-us. If the people that got Obama elected think they'll use him to gain more control over the world, they're as delusional as the person who wrote this post.
Aren't there any Republicans on your shit list? Seems to me that Baby Bush just about broke the back of this long suffering nation.
I'm not sure that you quite understand the society in which you live.
Yes, the US collectivized agriculture in a fashion that was copied by the USSR (badly). It was horrible, and the consequences to American health and the economy as a whole have been horrific. We still have centrally planned agriculture.
Uh, who sets interest rates? Those nebulous masters are neither nebulous nor secret. They show up on TV.
And you do know why pre-war houses sell at a premium relative to modern ones, right? New houses are made out of disposable material. They have the staying power of tampons.
USA USA USA Presidents are spokespeople.I'm sorry, hysteria doesn't become you: "horrific". Please take a look at longevity charts, paying particular attention to the difference between 1940 and 2010. While you're at it take a look at cost of food relative to wages. They've plummeted in the past fifty years. You appear to have drunk the Rachel Carson kool aid.
Exactly, so if the masters set the rates, why would they have allowed them to decline for thirty years? In fact, they don't set the rates, the market does. "They show up on TV." Give me a break. If you were a master of the universe would you show up on TV?
That's hardly an effective rebuttal, a rhetorical appeal to emotion. You might hate that we conquered the world. That doesn't change the facts. We'll rule the world, not directly, but indirectly, for the next five hundred to a thousand years. The Chinese as "future rulers of the world" are as big a joke as the Japanese were a few decades ago. If there really were "masters" then they've set the Chinese up to be the bag-holders. Since there are not, the Chinese, in their stupidity and lack of true creativity, simply counterfeited our market economy, but did it with a typical Chinese lack of interest in quality of outcome.
I don't know what to say to you if you don't understand how the Federal Reserve sets interest rates.
Here.
http://federalreserve.gov/
There are comic books on the web site appropriate to your reading level.
Spokes sheeple. Otherwise spot on.
Thank you, Paladin, for passion of vision joined to a grown up voice. By the way, if you are finding your internet time being spoiled by too many nasty and tacky commenters, try Moron-be-gone. Just spray your keyboard once a day with Moron-be-gone and enjoy an outbreak of lemon-scented informed amiability. Moron-be-gone. Available at all finer exterminators.
Just spray your keyboard once a day with Moron-be-gone... Available at all finer exterminators.
Suicide would be an unfortunate act even in your case. Please reconsider.
Dig it!
All serious sites attract folks who're intellectually lazy, on both sides of the issues. They throw out cliches like pimps throw down bad whiskey. When it comes to money and politics, people fall for anything that makes them seem like they're "on the inside" and "in the know". But it's truly worth it to have to wade through their adolescent drivel to learn from the folks who do have something original or insightful to say.
When it comes to money and politics, people fall for anything that makes them seem like they're "on the inside" and "in the know".
Let me understand this. Those of us who claim individual sovereignty wish to be "on the inside" and "in the know," in your opinion?
But francismarion, in his blind fight for the hive mind in quotes such as:
It is further recorded that the Roman senate lauded the general Cincinnatus, the 'cunctator', not for defeating Hannibal, but because he 'did not despair of the Roman republic'.
Gee, I wonder if the grown-up cry babies blubbering over their disasterous charts ever wondered what it would be like to be a part of something bigger than the Dow Jones Index?
is not expressing a desire to be "on the inside" and "in the know," in your opinion?
If nothing else, your statement that All serious sites attract folks who're intellectually lazy is strongly supported by the remainder of your post.
WE ARE AMERICA! HISTORY AND THE LAWS OF ECONOMICS DO NOT APPLY TO US!!!WE ARE THE UNITED STATES OF ARROGANCE! THE GUBERMINT WILL NEVER LET US DOWN. IF OBAMESSIAH DOES NOT SAVE US,THEN PALIN AND BECK WILL!!! WE WILL NEVER COLLAPSE! THE TV SAID SO!!!
lol, + a zillion baaaaaaaaaahs.
branded, vaccinated, herded, ready for market.
wake me up when we're at the next world war. We can probably make mobile exploding tanks out of all of those "economic-boom" SUVs we'll have laying around, we'll just have to figure out how to get them uphill first.
this author is a self righteous piece of work.
Populist rhetoric…death grip on the rear view.
We are acutely aware of the problems.
We are acutely aware of the problems.
Lets talk solutions if you're not part of the problem.
We have to rebuild the manufacturing base, albeit from a much lower labor cost level. It will happen. end the get rich easy mentality and wall st dominance of main st. It will happen, likely much to the chagrin of the author. Just another whiny turf exacerbating what's already wrong. Lead by example, inspire others to follow and ignite a spirit of creativity.don't just lament for things lost which never really existed or you are just one of the idiots and fools you waste your time bitching about.
How about this -
How about honest money, constitutional government, local control, no handouts, and freedom, for a start?
Not an option? OK, fine. In that case, no solution. Let it crash.
We need some lamentation just to get a majority mad enough to actually, really, finally DEMAND REAL CHANGE. We need solutions, but at least a starter set of those has been around for a long time. I think it is going to take a Ghandi-esque or MLK-like non-violent magnet personality for Liberty, Freedom, Sound Money practrices, to generate some real crossroads events like a financial Kent State to get a populist movement to sane economic policies and better yet leaders who have a love of our heretige of Freedom and Liberty and a hater of tyranny. There will be casualties in the financial sector but no matter what great financial institutions fail [FDIC should have been the answer all along for BAC/WFC et al], the sooner the change in course, the sooner to sound money and exposure of the banking elites total control of our culture through debt slavery and endless war to fuel the hatred to cause the next endless war, the better.
This country is living on a month-to-month T-bill fix, dependent on what should be our worst enemy, China, and taking our queues from the idiots in the EZ/UN/IMF/BIS and their globalist nonsense. At some point, a junkie that won't put down the needle himself has to crash to live. There is not that much time left to keep that from being an enevitability.
Or not.
Updated DOW and SP500 charts:
http://stockmarket618.wordpress.com
4. College is always a great investment
I graduated from one of the best architecture schools in the country, and never once in structures class did they mention that steel buildings can collapse at free fall speed without the aid of explosives.
What a waste.
Love it!!!! Part of the New Normal....New Physics!!
5. They are only taking the jobs that Americans won't do!
This "myth" is being tested right now. That, and its corollary of "they pay more in taxes than what they take in services."
Ah, yes. That's why the oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico collapsed into the sea. Someone blew it up. Probably those shadowy rulers we hear so much about. I'm guessing they flew over in a SR-71 Blackbird and dropped saboteurs into the water. Probably a couple of jihadis who were willing to die for the cause, having been brainwashed by those shadowy rules into thinking they were striking a blow against American and Christian hegemonic imperialism. I get it now...all is clear.
Steel towers
whether on land or at sea
just ain't what
they used to be.
Mass Delusion - Quinn Style
When in the course of one’s life one is exposed to such an odious individual one is faced with a dilemma: should the offensive individual – Jim Quinn, in this case – be shown compassion?
Should he be showered with kindness? Empathy?
Alas, everyone must answer this question for themselves.
Jim Quinn is a hater. He spews malevolence with abandon; posts stupidity and ignorance all over his racist and 9/11 Truth Denier blog.
He lies with glee and impunity. Whenever on the losing side of any debate, he deletes the reply and responds to facts with obscene vulgarity and total, ignorant nonsense.
I hope Quinn will be able someday to pull away from his circle-jerking ... post some more of his best Racist, hate spewing, 9/11 fact-denying gibberish.
Anticipate nothing but racist drivel and threat-filled attacks from Jim Quinn, complete with multiple spelling, grammatical and historical errors.
Quinn…Please provide your evidence for denying 9/11 being an inside job and we will have an original discussion.
Do not provide links or other people’s words.
I WANT TO SEE YOUR ORIGINAL ANALYSIS of 9/11 NOT being an inside job.
We await your words of wisdom.
ALL HAIL THE GREAT QUINN.
Come on… Moron…I’m calling you out.
You are 9/11 Truth Denier!
Good to see you’ve expanded your vocabulary. I was expecting your usual links to other peoples sites. You need to get that anger under control. It appears that they ignore you lately on your own blog. How does it feel to be such a miserable failure?
I wonder if Quinn will take up arms …because he ran squealing like a little girl from the 9/11 debate he started on his blog over a year ago.
It got scary back in the day for him, but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have the courage to fight for the things that are dear to him: delete buttons, IP Blocking, Internet porn, free mental health care, free Lithium, inexpensive booze to kill the pain and freedom from prosecution for looking at the girls getting off the school bus with binoculars.
I know you can cut and paste. Of course eating paste is probably part of your problem.
Please explain to us slow people what brought down the WTC.
What was the physics involved?
I know you know. Let us in on this new science.
Quinn will again demonstrate that ’9/11 truth deniers’ are the sorriest, saddest, most ignorant and hateful group of losers on the planet.
We will wait for a coherent argument from you about 9/11.
Fire away.
We all await your wisdom… and no cutting and pasting. Quinn you are a worthless piece of shit who hates Truth.
You are a ignorant coward who fled truth years ago and your entire life has been a complete failure. You love the attention the internet gives to you.
You are clearly incapable of writing a complete sentence or generating an original thought.
My goal is to lure this bonehead out of his porn-infested, racist blog – to expose TBP regulars and the drivel that the Quinns of the world peddle from , the Wharton School of Business, their Mommy’s basement and various homeless shelters throughout the land.
………………………………………………………………………….
If you cannot discuss alternative perspectives on 9/11 with maturity and without obscene name calling, please do not raise the issue.
Mr. Quinn, if you continue to allow this on your site, please take it down.
Sincerely,
James Lamb Hinsman
…………………………………………………………………………
Go see if you have a strong stomach…don’t just take my word. (dp)
http://theburningplatform.com/blog/2010/07/28/ode-to-an-american-traitor/comment-page-2
Administrator says:
"I’ll post anything I like on my site. DP is a nutjob. When I get bored again, I will post another slapdown of DP and the 9/11 Truthers."
..................................................................................
Okay Quinn... come on... I'm calling you out in public and you have no delete button to hide behind. All your racist, Philly homeboys... (RubMy1 and your aka: Smokey)... sycophants at www.thesmolderingshitpile.com are welcome to join.
You aint got the gonads to debate truth in an open forum...MORON.
+1000000
If you cannot discuss alternative perspectives on 9/11 with maturity and without obscene name calling, please do not raise the issue.
Your above statement also applies to many other events that the PTB via MM cannot discuss (e.g. GoM spill, etc) with maturity and without name calling.
Quinn is over at his blog www.thesmolderingpile.com chatting with his racist homeboys from white burbs of Philly He aint got the balls to post here in the open where he can't block IPs and he has no Delete button.
...................................................................................
Administrator says:
Smokey
DP is over on Zero Hedge posting his usual insanity. He is telling them we are one in the same.
................................................................................
Yup... Quinn has got that right.
That is one of the reasons his ex-webmaster kicked his sorry ass to the curb and closed his former Free website.
Quinn got caught by his webmaster doing dirty to people who commented about his moronic visions and his economic/political gate keeping for The PTB.
This guy spends his entire day when he is supposed to be working, writing on his blog... bitching about Black people who are poor and might be taking advantage of the system.
The Wharton School of Business might some day wake up to the leach at the state's tit in their accounting department.
It all depends on who collects the insurance.
Great Delusion #4.
Any/All swine/scum politician is worth the powder to blow them to hell.
And that ladies and gentlemen, is where they all need to be dispatched at the earliest possible opportunity. Don't bother to replace.
The boys are gonna' get it and they know it. Just look at their faces these days and you can almost see the fear in their eye's. One of them is going to get poped before long.
the visible ones are expendable, it's the ones you don't see that control the game.
I aint in stocks. We got out at 30.00 share quite a few years ago after being in since 8.00 share.
I aint in my home as investment. It's paid for free and clear except revenuer each year and the amount is pititful and easily paid through accumulated pocket change. The only benefit is I dont have to sleep under a bridge or in a car being homeless.
Globilzation can shove it too. Just about everything I see in a store these days is imported. I have managed to find sources here at home in the USA for the same products or spend my money to another American. For example a Gun Belt was made in North Carolina last year. It took the man about a month to make due to back orders.
Lemmings? Of course not. We avoid crowds.
Self Sufficient and self reliant? Sure. I just bypassed a failed electrical part in the attic (Which will be repaired when electrician comes back tomorrow) to restore cooling. If that overheats, I would just generate power for a while outside and patch it in off the grid.
I won't argue against the Topic because the Graphs do show as a Nation in the last 15 years alot of us have gone badly.
The ONLY CONSTANT that is changed in my house and family is the DEBT.
The credit card, Debts, borrowing and big shopping malls lifestyle is dead forever. Long live Cash and liquidity.
No. More. Debt.
The faster the United States can Learn it, Live it and Do so the faster we all will get settled in and back to work doing jobs we enjoy and not for money.
Again, one must seek out who benefits from the delusion of globalization. The crony capitalists, Wall Street oligarchs, and corporate fascists who control the puppet strings in this country have benefited greatly from the Big Lie. Over 5 million manufacturing jobs have been off-shored since 2000. These good paying jobs are never coming back. Millions of service sector jobs continue to be shipped overseas. The global conglomerates like GE, HP, Oracle, IBM, and Boeing continue to rake in billions of profits, distributing millions to its high paid executives, while gutting middle class America.
Wow, and a quote from Chomsky too.... am I at the right place? Is Marla bound and gagged down in the basement? Great piece.
Why Chomsky gets such bad press when he is right about nearly everything, is a mystery to me.
I'll bet on a cunning linguist like him anytime before I'd believe one word from those who oppose him.
all those words mean is "I chose to believe this narrative" - nothing more. . . and your "cunning linguist" verbiage, quelle wit.
Barrie Zwicker, a leading journalist in Canada... (read out of the USSA BS Box)...is on a national TV show about 9/11 Truth throughout Canada. He talks about the reasons people believe what they do or what they can't or won't learn about facts and science.
Hey... Jim Quinn... you might go up the "learning curve" a bit with this guy!
...a "cunning" gatekeeper...
Barrie Zwicker (and myself) used to hang on Chomsky's words and writings. Not any more!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhrZ57XxYJU&feature=related
I am a fan of some of Chomsky's books and some of the speeches he has made but... to follow anyone blindly is a mistake. To follow any shepherd is to take the role of a sheep. At the very best you can only expect to get pieces of the truth from even the most "honest" because the truth is so muddled and not meant to be known.
As far as 9/11... I remember Chomsky once saying something along the lines of (to paraphrase) "if you have to choose between being the person who is being beaten by a stick or the one yielding the stick.... don't be stupid, choose to yield the stick". Questioning the official 9/11 story is dangerous because it is insane - if you believe we live in a sane world. It is absolutely terrifying to think that it could be a false flag, and way beyond most people's ability to even contemplate because if it were true then the world they believe in is a total lie. If Chomsky started going on about 9/11 as being a false flag conspiracy he would be done. So, maybe he has chosen not to be beaten, or maybe he's just getting old.
Question authority. Think for yourself. Following anyone completely is a mistake, but to not learn something from someone because you do not agree with them 100% is also a mistake.
911 was an inside job.
Chomsky is a punk.
thanks for the link DavidPierre. . .
like Barrie Zwicker, I've read Chomsky over the years, and like him I found Chomsky's opinion on 9/11 disappointing. . .
I must say, we should all strive to use research and reading as tools towards critical analysis, and not elevate any author to "unquestioned" status - the point of becoming more aware is to not rely on any ONE person for any truths - otherwise we treat learning like religious dogma, believing whole doctrines because of the author - not healthy.
"The trouble is that people have been pushed to bet not on somewhat predictable market actions but on what the Fed and the politicians will do."
That speaks volumes to our times as traders/investors.
1776, as in "revolution against the enemy from outside"?
I'd rather have a 1789!
Just think outside the 'American' box ;-)
As I recall, NAFTA was not bought by all americans who worked for a living. At least half or more of those working and voting gave congress a hell of a time with Clinton's silver-tongued devil presentation of NAFTA and GATT being great for america. That Congress passed it in spite of the protests, is not an indictment of americans so much as it is a summons issued to CONgress that they obey their contributors who profit handsomely from those american job killers.
Place the blame where it belongs.
BRAVO.
I think 1 and 2 were true for a long time, so folks weren't not lemminged into them. Long term investment is like raising kids: you plan, you save, you sacrifice. You operate under an assumption, wisely adopted or not, that the rules in place will be the same rules at the end of the investment.
I believe that 3 changed all that, both with respect to 1 and 2 and with respect to what we considered rational economic behavior and with how this country deals with long term investment. The rules were changed.
Long term investment has become the risky approach to life.
"America resembles a 40 year old aging baseball icon with two bad knees, a pot belly, receding hairline and delusions that he is still the ball player he was at 24. He doesn’t realize that his skills are shot, as he flails at curveballs in the dirt thrown by 21 year old kids. The rest of the league knows he is washed up, but he refuses to accept reality. America isn’t even running on fumes at this point. It is running on delusions."
That's some good writin'.
The revolution will not be televised... it will be posted on Zero Hedge.
"America resembles a 40 year old aging baseball icon with two bad knees, a pot belly, receding hairline and delusions that he is still the ball player he was at 24. He doesn’t realize that his skills are shot, as he flails at curveballs in the dirt thrown by 21 year old kids. The rest of the league knows he is washed up, but he refuses to accept reality. America isn’t even running on fumes at this point. It is running on delusions."
But the guy can do broadcasting. Except that the networks have deemed that Blondie McBusty sits in the dugout doing interviews. He can coach. He can take his wealth and treasure and get a business or law degree and become an agent. He can open a freakin' restaurant. He's told that it's over because he can't field grounders.
Stop believing what others tell you.
It ain't over. It's never over.
I ain't over. It's never over. What? The quote is - "It ain't over till it's over." Yogi Berra
Opponents of globalization fail to grasp economic science, including the Ricardian law of comparative advantage. These clowns would probably advocate smashing automobile manufacturing equipment, because it would help restore jobs to the poor, victimized buggy whip manufacturers. And if we each tie one hand behind our back we will find there is more than enough work for everyone - it will be an economic paradise.
What is the opposite of globalization? It is "localization", i.e. enacting laws forbidding people to freely do business where and with whom they wish. Who is the first person you choose to have their property be seized, or have them be shot, for the crime of doing business? If globalization is bad, then aren't nationalization and municipalization also bad? Would you advocate errecting impenetrable walls to hermetically seal your house from all outside economic activity?
Thank you, thank you, thank you...
Opponents of globalization fail to grasp economic science, including the Ricardian law of comparative advantage. These clowns would probably advocate smashing automobile manufacturing equipment, because it would help restore jobs to the poor, victimized buggy whip manufacturers.
Surely you are aware that when a term such as "globalization" is used by the ruling class it means something other than the conventional definition of the word. Politicians legitimize carpet bombing and mass murder by calling it "freedom." Corporatists call for "deregulation" when they really want everyone but themselves to be constrained by the regulators whom they keep in their pockets.
Coins from Asia have been discovered in Viking hoards. Global trade is not new under the sun, but this has nothing to do with the modern political concept of "globalization."
My WTSHTF scenario - move back home near some Amish communities, they usually have food surpluses they will be happy to trade for PM's and homes are very reasonably priced Of course getting there could be an issue, when the dam breaks, well hell, I'll probably be swept away with everyone else.... Carpe Diem and hope you see another.
I too remember the old Dutch country that we would visit as a Kid. We were considered outsiders, the English as it were. But the food, drink and hospitality was outstanding and no technology in sight except horsepower, steam and manual works.
I think I hear tell somewhere that the Amish are migrating to new lands west these days. I cannot rightly tell right now. There have been a few living nearby for a number of years; maybe they would know.
We will see how it goes.
I don't think the tulips or the south sea were American companies.
Mass delusion lately has been about the market going down.
Why do these loony threads always (re)appear on the weekends, and Sundays especially?
loony this is normal for me. now i have to figure out how to wean my daughter off suzi orman. scary, saturday always for her. she seriously listened to me 8 years ago. what have i created. i told her to turn it off and she bitch slapped me hard.
Mmm. Suze. She can talk money. But never tells people to completely PAYOFF debt cards with a simple withdrawl. Oh no. She says or rather preaches paying down the principal over months and years while sitting on mountains of money these people who call into her show seem to have.
Give me a break. Our entire required expenses minus food and gasoline is less than 600 per month. WHY are the people making over 5K a month calling Suze? HUH?
We pretty much quit watching that show long ago, but once in a while we will take it in when absolutely nothing else is good on that satellite.
SO used to preach homes as the best investment anyone could make, even if they had to go deeply into debt...
turn it off, read a book.
Poopdeville writes "If money is meant to be a proxy for labor, precious metals are not money. The value of labor decays over time, as entropy causes the value of the product of that labor to decay. If money is to be a proxy to labor, its value must decay in time as well."
I am stunned that no one has called bullshit on this idiotic statement. Labor has value at the time it is performed. The purpose of money is to store value, which is highly relevant here because labor cannot be stored. Let's say you have a big crop in the field. You hire labor, pay them to bring in the crop, but in money printed in disappearing ink. A month (year, decade) later, you have the crop, a physical asset, but the laborers money has turned to ashes. You have robbed the laborers by changing the contract under which they agreed to provide their labor, after the fact. You sir, are the criminal. Paper money is fraud/theft.
Humans have a highly developed sense of fairness. They understand fraud and theft. Under the current political regime, the criminals who control the money supply are looting the country and destroying the accumulated wealth of the middle class. Unfortunately, democracy, which is tyranny by the majority, has been coopted by the welfare state; when more than half of the citizens are benefitting from forced redistribution of profits, that condition can't be changed by voting. And as others have noted already, when the sheeple do rise up and demand proper behavior from their elected representatives, they discover that the elected representatives do not represent their interests.
"Retirement is freeloading. The Gold Standard is rent seeking on the grandest scale." Either your idiotic ramblings are the product of public education, or you are a troll hired to juice the discussion. Reasonable people who work hard and save their money do not deserve to have it stolen from them by the fraud of paper money. Gold preserves value and prevents this paper fraud. It is the only thing that does.
"Humans have a highly developed sense of fairness".
Really? What is fair about Ted Stevens, the late corrupt asswipe from Alaska taking money from 49 other states to build a bridge to nowhere? Or Byrd taking money from 49 other states to build monuments to himself? Or Blabovich selling a senate seat?
Humanoids may have a sense of fairness but it is a prehensile tail comared to the larceny in their hearts, that they can vote to themselves that which they cannot earn.
You have assumed that politicians are human.
Tyler,
I'd like to ask that the authors refrain, at least some of the time, from the techniques
which the politicians, the mass media, and other propagandists use in order
to dull people's reasoning and individuality.
Jim's first paragraph:
"The American public thinks they are rugged individualists, who come to conclusions based upon sound reason and a rational thought process. The truth is that the vast majority of Americans act like a herd of cattle or a horde of lemmings. Throughout history there have been many instances of mass delusion. They include the South Sea Company bubble, Mississippi Company bubble, Dutch Tulip bubble, and Salem witch trials. It appears that mass delusion has replaced baseball as the national past-time in America. In the space of the last 15 years the American public have fallen for the three whopper delusions:"
Clearly he has been reading Charles' Macawley lately. Bravo.
Therefore, he knows that the South Sea Company bubble was perpetrated on the British by the British, and the Mississippi Company bubble was perpetrated by
another British fellow, John Law, on the french people. His paragraph does not
deny this, but it cleverly first condemns "americans" (I presume that you mean denizens of the USA) for being foolish and then he mentions two whopping big
con games which occurred in other societies, and most casual readers not familiar with those events will just assume by association that they happened in the USA and that it was US citizens who were fooled.
We have to fight this sort of thing constantly when we read financial reports,
news reports, corporate press releases, talk with our friends, and so on. It's be awfully sweet if the amount of it here can be kept to a minimum.
regards and thanks for everything you do
'...propagandists use in order
to dull people's reasoning and individuality."
Tyler or his associates might also do some Due Diligence and visit the blogs of some of these "writers" before posting their "economic articles". Quinn's blog is a cesspool of Racists and bigots. Quinn encourages some very questionable "debates".
ie:
http://theburningplatform.com/blog/2010/03/17/30-blocks-of-squalor-pothole-update/
http://theburningplatform.com/blog/2010/04/12/spring-has-sprung-on-the-30-blocks-of-squalor/
http://theburningplatform.com/blog/2010/07/15/30-blocks-of-squalor-summer-edition/
His previous webmaster dumped Quinn about 6 months ago.
Now he has a cheap, off-shore blog of his own, and is a bit more circumspect... but not much.
Judge a man by the company he keeps!
DP
Pry yourself away from the sheep?
Quinn:
Pry yourself away from the sheep..."Smokey"?
{Just a little background note ... your AKA?}
....................................................................................
Smokey says:
“ Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King, Jeremiah Wright, and Al Sharpton are fucking worthless, stinking alley niggers of the lowest order.
I get sick as shit of the way whites are routinely discriminated against in this country.
The fucking spics are just as bad, worse actually, than the blacks. They come over here and murder and steal from this country and make fucking demands of the citizens here. All a spic knows how to do is steal and fuck.
That’s it. Steal and fuck.
And Tarbaby can’t fucking wait to legalize all of them so that he gets their votes to provide support for his Socialist agenda. Entitlements have pissed this society down the drain.”
..............................................................................
Well...Quinn... you are so fast with the delete button about 9/11 issues...Why do you let this Racist shit stand?
Answer the question...MORON !
DP
You're crazier than a shithouse rat. Good to see that the Zero hedge readers get a taste of your insanity. Isn't your 9/11 truther convention starting?
Quinn:
Why don't you just tell all the nice folks here on ZH why your previous webmaster...Jason Rines... booted your sorry ass to the curb off of the really good site he gave you for free.
Come on Moron...I got all night... kind of like old times... but you have no delete button this time.
Please enlighten everyone about your Neo-Science and how the laws of Physics were suspended for a few hours on 9/11.
Not a 'shithouse rat' ...I'm a Junkyard Dog onto your sorry FatAss for your Racist BS in public forums.
We await one of your typical, obscene replies.
The only dullard is you. Did I say American history? I guess I overrate the intelligence of my readers to know about the South Sea bubble. You seem to be a pompous ass, telling Tyler what he needs to do about authors. Yes, I'm misleading the public with my propoaganda. You are like an old lady 3rd grade teacher. Plus, you're a long winded blowhard.
It’s good to see that the www.thefesteringpile.com
“SPECIAL CLASS” has requested my return as the slow-learner’s instructor.
"!Quinn... get back to your desk! ... quit rubbing yourself up against RubMy1.!"
{Oh...Lord give me strength!}
Now for your first assignment after all these many months.
Read what this American Hero, who devoted his life to the science of fire fighting has to say. Please address your comments to what he has posted publicly.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
An Appeal to Firefighters, Present and Past from a retired FDNY Lieutenant
Fellow Firefighters,
A great tragedy befell our community on September 11, 2001, an unprecedented 343 deaths in the line of duty.
As horrible as that toll is, if there were a rational explanation for it, we could accept it and mourn.
We all understood the risk we accepted when we took the oath of office, that chance might cut short our lives when we placed ourselves in harm’s way in the public’s service. This is what we are paid for and it is our honor.
However, the official explanation of the events of that day are not only insufficient, they are fantastic and cannot bear rational examination.
We are asked to believe that on that day three structural steel buildings, which have never before in history collapsed because of fire, fell neatly into their basements at the speed of gravity, their concrete reduced to dust.
We are asked to believe that jet fuel (kerosene) can melt steel.
We are asked to believe that the most sophisticated air defense system in the world, that responded to sixty-eight emergencies in the year prior to 9-11 in less than twenty minutes allowed aircraft to wander about for up to an hour and a half.
We are asked to believe that the steel and titanium components of an aircraft that supposedly hit the Pentagon “evaporated”.
There is much, much more if anyone cares to look into it.
Trade Tower #7 by itself is the “smoking gun”.
Not hit by an aircraft, with only a few relatively small fires, it came down in a classic crimp and implosion, going straight into its basement, something only very precise demolition can accomplish, which takes days if not weeks to prepare.
The 9-11 Commission didn’t even mention it, and F.E.M.A. actually stated they…
DIDN’T KNOW WHY IT COLLAPSED AND LEFT IT AT THAT.
Brothers, I know that the implications of the above are hard, almost unthinkable, but the official explanation is utter nonsense, and three hundred and forty three murdered brothers are crying out for justice.
Demand a genuine investigation into the events of September 11!
-Anton Vodvarka, Lt. FDNY(ret)
Lt. Vodvarka served on FDNY Ladder Co 26, Rescue Co. 3, Rescue Co. 1, Engine Co. 92, Ladder 82 and Ladder 101. He was awarded the Merit Class 1 award, the Prentice Medal.
http://firefightersfor911truth.org/
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Now take your time...as this is for you slow learners... and at least try to be somewhat rational.
Stay on topic in your attempts to discount what this professional firefighter has to say.
I know it will be very difficult for most of you to comprehend the basic science and simple logic of his thesis.
But heck…
Y’alls just give it a try.
http://www.thestinkingpile.com‘s “Special Class” is now officially back in session here on ZeroHedge after over a year of a necessary ‘recess’.
Come on now Mr. Quinn (aka 'Smokey')... you can do it. Use your crayons and draw us all a nice picture.
Welcome back class.
!!!! CLASS!!! CLASS!!! CLASS!
Now... settle down ...attempt to stay in your seats.
RubMy1 get your hand out'a Smokey’s pants.
{bunch of fucking retarded morons will never learn…jesus…give me strength.}
http://theburningplatform.com/blog/2010/07/28/ode-to-an-american-traitor/comment-page-2
Occam's Razor buddy: the vast conspiracy is not the simplest explanation
DP says:
CLASS !!!
CLASS !!
PLEASE FOCUS!
I know how hard it is for Y’Alls to think and figure unless you’re counting beans and using your crayons to add up to ten.
Now here is a little factoid that FatAss and RubMy1 might like to try and configure in their congestive minds.
Here’s a little help from over at the advanced class, ZH, where Professor Cognitive Dissonance pretty well gives you a REALLY big hint at what I am attempting with you tards here at theburningplatform.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
by Cognitive Dissonance
on Wed, 07/28/2010 – 12:07
#492594
For the past 9 years, 9/11 truth has been the acid test for anyone who claims to be speaking “truth” or seeking “justice” of any sort at any time.
IT’S A PASS/FAIL TEST FOLKS!
Either you buy the official conspiracy story of Bin Laden etc (with all the back peddling, rationalizations, justifications and excuse mongering you need in order to swallow it hook line and sinker) or you decide that the rabbit hole needs a closer look.
And then you don’t turn back at the first sighting of ugliness.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Now… I know… I empathize with your impediments…your defects…and your speech disorders.
But this too shall pass as you understand that 9/11 along with JFK was and is an All Amerikan Coup in progress.
Now do your assignment and argue your points, re: 9/11, by addressing the NYFD Commander’s
essay.
Why would an American Hero write such things about what happened on 9/11?
Why do YOU ignore what he has written?
Why does DP waste his time trying to educate morons at http://www.thefesteringheap.com?
{why bother… ask myself this all the time}
And another big one..."cutting the upper tax brackets over and over benefits everyone, as a matter of fact, we would be best off if people who make billions pay no taxes."
What? Globalization doesn't help working Americans? What's next?
I campaigned and voted for Obama. Would not do so again. He is a deception. The Dems will face a backlash on this.
Oh-bumma is a stooge and it will make him rich at our expense. the only solution is to vote out all incumbents and then shut down the Fed, print our own debt-free money and start over.
Corporate lobbying, and all free-trade agreements need to be terminated as well.
Debt Jubilee approaches:
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article21887.html
Globalisation = Vast Riches and Luxury for the few,poverty for the many.The Human Race is now truly moving backwards for the first time in probably 800 years,what an achievement and no-one appears responsible or at the top throughout the world seems to care.Truly awe inspiring incompetance but still our leaders seem incapable of truly understanding how dangerous this has all become.Does any state in the world now function normally and do any have any real stability any more ?
Hahaha! "Rugged individualists"?
They don't drive SUVs. They don't vote Tea Party. They don't depend on governments. They don't have barbecues and call it "roughing it". They don't own guns and think they're "more powerful" for it. They don't worship or respect the military., the police and the fire departments They don't salute flags, and they don't hate hard-working foreigners. They don't need high incomes, they don't follow the masses or read USAToday. They don't shop at JL Bean's or Timberland and call it "outdoorsmanship". They don't believe in pro sports or muscle cars.
A true individualist is modest. Self-reliant. Consumes little. Depends on no one or nothing. Can survive anywhere and thinks for him/herself.
Then I'll believe it.
well said Kreditanstalt.
+++ a dozen DIY punks!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIY_ethic
^for the curious.
Quinn is a dumbass. Listen, Wall Street and the Banksters spent hundreds of millions of dollars to get people to believe #1 and #2. Nobody ever thought #3 was a good idea.
Speaking of delusions, ask Jimmy who he voted for last presidential election. How'd that work out for you Jim?
"In the United States, the majority undertakes to supply a multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity of forming opinions of their own." ~Alexis de Toqueville, Democracy in America
FREDERICK SODDY 1934
"... it is a Great Depression but with different characteristics than our First."
I'm afraid that one of those different characteristics is a populace that is less able to deal with the various challenges presented by a depression. All the talk about heading to the hills loaded with rice, beans and guns seems to be another difference and hints at the pontential for greater trauma, despair and depression. I believe that compared to our elders who survived GD1, we as a people are less resilient, psychologically weaker and have much further to fall. And, if we do have GD2, the outcome most certainly will be different as well.
David Pierre - take you 9/11 shit and shove it up your ass. Quinn is right - you bang sheep.
The Jim Quinns of this world are the problem… not just a small symptom.
He works as an accountant at The Wharton School of Business: but really spends almost his entire 9 – 5 day on his website while sucking on the state’s Teet for the big paycheck.
He writes about all the Black people who abuse the system while he basically does nothing all day but jerk off on his blog pretending to have all the answers.
The guy is absolutely stupid about 9/11 truth and believes everything in the Offical/Mafia/Government conspiracy theory.
YUP!…buildings just fall down…end of story.
He’s just a convenient tool, like you, for the elites and the political murderers and warmongers. Quinn spouts 'Simple Simon' economic BS, with fancy but stupid charts made up from patently false government numbers; all the while ignoring the mountains of scientific truth that stares all you illiterate morons straight in the face.
His previous webmaster dumped him after a year of bigotry and racist posting that attracted some very strange followers. He’s now paying some slave labor IT guy in India to keep him up on the web.
Quinn is a hypocrite surrounded by sycophants.
Go check out his blog…some really sick shit in there already and this is only his new stuff of the past few months.
Quinn is a scared and angry hillbilly in Philly!
He runs this site camouflaged in an ivory tower, posting Econ 101 articles he cribs off the net.
Quinn hasn't worked in the private sector… besides with a retailer/home builder … oh wow, Krugman once consulted too!
How important is his simpleton economic BS?
Important enough to ignore his racist views and his denial of political and scientific facts?
You ... 'CharlieBC'? Bull!
Sound more like "Smokey" Quinn's AKA on his site.
Go back to your "TPB" site, www.thebullshitpile.com and commune with all the MORONS you attract there!
Uh, no we didn't; we simply had no say in the matter. The Big Lie was shoved down our throats and up our asses. The middle class was brought along for the ride. And when our kicking and screaming got to be too annoying, we were gagged, bound in duct tape, and thrown in the trunk. But the pace never slowed and the destination never changed.
You want a "Big Lie?" We still have a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. THAT'S the Big Lie.
Good reference to MacKay's classic book.
For another interesting read on the same subject, check
"Ponzi Schemes, Invaders from Mars . . ." by Joseph Bulgatz
Also about mass delusion and economic debacles and the like.
Resources like the one you mentioned here will be very useful for me! I like to share it with all my friends and hope they will definitely like it.
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